Flight Instincts
by The 25th Dragon
Summary: Seekers, the birds of prey of the Decepticons and on top of the metaphorical food chain in the Nemesis. So what could possibly spook the Seekers into becoming flighty, jittery mechs? This is my first story!
1. Chapter 1: Hunt for the Blue Jay

**(This is my first story! :D So please, review and tell me what you think! Don't worry about being too harsh, I'd rather you not sugar coat things. Depending on the reaction I get, I'll write and post another chapter on either 'Screamer or 'Warp. Enjoy the first chapter of Flight Instincts!)**

* * *

The Jaguar licked his chops as he watched his prey. The blue jay was spooked, looking behind its back every few feet, feathers ruffled up, starting at every noise...

Thundercracker nearly bolted through the ceiling when he turned around the corner and smacked face first into Bonecrusher.

"Hey! Watch were you're going you heap of slag!"

"Can it you dim-witted ground-pounder!"

Bonecrusher was about to retort nastily but held his tongue when he got a good look at the Seeker. The blue F-15's optics where darting everywhere, his fingers where twitching, his wings where shifting restlessly on his back, and his armor was sticking up everywhere. Something was up.

"What's crackin, 'Cracker? Looks like something's.. Ruffled up your feathers!" Bonecrusher smirked at his own puns. Thundercracker closed his optics in a vain attempt not to roll them has he sighed, jet engines in his feet powering down as he calmed slightly.

"Its.. nothing, Bonecrusher." Bonecrusher watched as the blue Seeker stalked off, trying to flatten his armor and not glance behind him. Bonecrusher never noticed a certain feline mech slip past him, hugging the shadows.

* * *

The jaguar stalked the blue jay, his body like a black liquid, melting into the shadows, padded feet making nary a sound as he easily closed in for the kill...

'YAAAAGHHH- THUD'

Everyone present in the rec room swiveled their heads in sinc to watch the blue mech rocket into ceiling hard, before falling onto his aft. No one ever noticed the feline mechanoid dart away from the seemingly 'thruster accident'.

"Hey 'Cracker! Drink too much high-grade for once? That's a ceiling above you, buddy."

"Shut up you glorified hunk of scrap metal!" The usually sane and reserved Seeker spun on his heel and marched off, optics darting at every shadow, combat systems activated and searching for a certain Cassette belonging to Soundwave. He tried to calm himself as his brothers poked at him through their bond, wondering what was causing the anxiety radiating from the blue triplet.

* * *

Resting from his successful hunt, the jaguar lounges on his favorite perch, cleaning the remains of his kill off of his claws...

Soundwave sighed internally as his first Cassette stretched out on his shoulder cannon, claws shining after Ravage licked them clean of any blue paint leftover from whatever his daily activities had led him to do. Thundercracker appeared briefly, glaring pointedly at him and Ravage before spitting and muttering something foul as he stalked off, purple paint matching the Nemesis's halls scratched onto his helm. Impossible to ignore sudden increase in intensity of Ravage's purrs, Soundwave put two and two together and directed his thoughts towards the black jaguar mech currently draped lazily across his shoulder cannon.

'Ravage: Report daily activities. Involving: Seeker Thundercracker'

The Cassette purred and started grooming his legs.

'Hmmm.. Are you sure you want to know?'

Soundwave processed for a second before answering.

'Answer to previous inquiry: unnecessary. Request: that I am not to be involved.'

'Of course.' The jaguar suddenly got up and leapt onto a nearby energon dispenser, before disappearing into the shadows. Soundwave tried to ignore the self-narrating that Ravage unconsciously let slip through their mental link as the comms officer headed towards his post. He really shouldn't have shown the Cassette those nature shows..

* * *

The jaguar, hungry for more blood, prowls the jungle for his next victim. Soon, the silent hunter finds a suitable target..

Thundercracker stalked through the halls and tried to ignore his suddenly re-awakened instincts. He felt like he was being watched and stalked, and it was making him nervous. Skywarp was just around the corner...

* * *

It's now or never, the majestic beast leaps in the air, letting out a mighty roar as his claws sink into the hide of the blue jay...

Skywarp was drinking some energon, relaxing after a long patrol when a load yowl followed by the most Primus-awful screech reached his audio receptors. The thought to go help out his brother and fellow seeker briefly crossed his CPU, but he was on energon break. Someone else can deal with it. So Skywarp leaned back and planted his feet on a nearby table and listened to his poor brother get his aft handed to him.

* * *

Thundercracker was in panic. His own wings where blocking him from snatching Ravage, who was hanging on for dear life on his back. And laughing. _And laughing._ He tried to slam his back against the wall but Ravage jerked his claws, forcing the Seeker to slam his shoulder into the wall. He tried to fly up and scrape the cat off with the ceiling. That worked as well as the rec room incident. Finally, he fell to the floor on his chest and watched as the black feline mech ran away. _Laughing._ And right before he turned the corner, Ravage glanced back at the blue F-15 and gave the most fragging _smug_ look that the Seeker had ever seen. Ravage then ran off, right as Skywarp turned the other corner to find his brother throwing a tantrum on the floor.

"Bro.. You having thruster malfunctions again?"

The scream of rage was permanently filed away in Ravage's memory core.

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**(Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it! :D This story was influenced by Melora Maxwell! I love her stories about Soundwave and co. Thanks Melora! Now please, review!)**


	2. Chapter 2: Mind Games

**(Hello all! Thank you so much for the supportive reviews, follows, and favorites! :D Please, more reviews! I was so pleased with the reaction I got, I stayed up way too late last night starting this chapter off. xD I'm going to keep making references to Fire Redhead's ****Energon Goggles****, so it might not hurt to go check the short story out first.I also had some issues with italicizing words, so please excuse any issues, I'm currently trying to work out any kinks. Enough chit-chat! Enjoy!)**

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The F-15 blinked. The jaguar stared. The jet's wings twitched. The cat's glare narrowed. The black pelted feline took a step forward. The purple and black mech took an unconscious step backwards. Ravage grinned. He knew he had won, and Skywarp knew it too. Ravage sat back on his haunches and, seemingly losing interest in the much larger yet intimidated Seeker, studied his claws, extending and retracting them, the tiniest noise of metal on metal heard. Skywarp tried not to flinch. Ravage had never really bothered the Seeker, but after yesterdays humiliation of TC for no apparent reason, the fact that the feline had entered 'Warp's quarters without picking the lock, and the fact that the purple mech was now Ravage's center of attention, it was getting under his armor to say the least.

"What are you doing in my quarters?"

'So he can speak! Splendid, I was worried your audio box was fried.'

"Why are you on my bed?" Skywarp's wings twitched and he shifted on his feet uncomfortably.

'Tell me, Skywarp, why is it that you're terrified of a mere Cassette?' Ravage leapt gracefully up onto the Seeker's desk.

"_Terrified_? I'm.. Uhh.. Surprised to see you in my quarters is all. Which you still hav-" The mech trailed off as he found himself looking_up_ at the feline, who was sitting on a shelf looking _down_ at the Seeker. This unnerved Skywarp a great deal.

'Yes. Terrified. And I can go where I please.' The feline narrowed his optics and smirked. 'Anywhere I please.'

Ravage swished his tail. Skywarp blinked and twitched his wings.

"You can't go-"

'_Anywhere_' Ravage stopped purring and glared at the mech. Skywarp stopped filtering air as his optics widened slightly.

"I.. Uhm.. I'm going to go.. Patrol the air.." His wings twitched again. Ravage smirked and relaxed his posture. Skywarp suddenly let out the air in his overheating frame and started filtering air again as he started backing out of the room, almost tripping and hitting Bonecrusher on his way out. Upon contacting with the Constructicon, he teleported with 'pop' and rush of air. Bonecrusher was bewildered, before looked in the room briefly, seeing nothing but a poster of an F-16 on the wall. He grunted, mumbling about glitched Seekers as he walked off. He never noticed a certain Cassette dart past.

* * *

"Soundwave, I need to go fly."

Soundwave looked up at the purple and black F-15.

"Request: denied."

The Seeker growled. "Why not? I need to stretch my wings. Do you really want a bored, teleporting Seeker confined in the same space as you?"

Soundwave processed for a moment. "Request: still denied."

"Dammit 'Wave! I need to fly! Your damn cat-bot is pestering me, and if you don't let me out, I'll rip off your shoulder cannon and beat you with it!"

"Skywarp: threatening superior mech is unadvised. However, I will let you out." Soundwave spoke in his monotonous voice as he activated the controls to lift the launch pad out of the ocean. Skywarp sighed and rolled his shoulders, trying to stop his wings from twitching anymore. Soundwave stopped him right before he could take off into the Pacific sky.

"Skywarp: try not to interface with anymore human jets." It was times like this when Soundwave was glad he had a faceplate to hide his wide smirk. Skywarp spat in Soundwave's general direction before transforming and bolting out into sunset, leaving a sonic boom that Thundercracker would have been proud of.

* * *

**(rec room- late that night)**

Mixer placed a cube of high-grade in front of Skywarp before leaving to go deal with his other customers. Skywarp took a long, fast flight that calmed him down and set his CPU at rest. _There's no way he could possibly know about it. No way, he would have done something by now._ Satisfied with himself, he picked up his cube and relaxed, and was about to take a drink when the devil himself dropped in front of him on the bar. Skywarp groaned.

"What do you want, Ravage?" The feline purred in response.

'I wouldn't drink that high-grade if I were you.'

"And why the Pit not?" Skywarp glanced at the cube in question.

'Because its mine,' purred Ravage.

Skywarp stuttered. "What? I just payed for this with my own cred-" The F-15 stopped cold when he saw the_smug_ look on the Cassette's face. Skywarp shifted on the chair restlessly and his wings started twitching again.

'That is _my_ cube of high-grade, Skywarp, and I want you to put it down.'

"And.. And why would I do that..?" ventured the Seeker as he put it down reluctantly.

'This is a fine cube of energon, 'Warp,' the feline purred as he paced in front of the subject of their conversation, rubbing against it and swatting the larger mech's hands away. 'What did this cost, a few week's of salary? A month?'

The Seeker was quiet, contemplating the consequences of blasting one of Megatron's best infiltrator and saboteur, but before he could activate his arm cannons and make Ravage one with Oblivion, he heard the one sentence he was dreading.

'I know.'

"What- How- No- Know what? What could you possibly be talking about!" Skywarp almost roared at the Cassette.

'Shhh! We wouldn't want everyone in the whole rec room to hear, now would we?'

"Why you-" The Seeker stopped and glanced around, noticing the stares he was collecting before he lowered his voice, "What are you talking about?"

Ravage just purred loudly in response as he hopped onto the rim of the cube and lapped at the energon for a few seconds.

'You know exactly what I'm referring to. If i could get into your quarters with no trouble, what makes you think your closet is any safer?'

Skywarp stopped filtering air and froze. He looked to be glitching before finally slumping in his seat and groaning.

'I'm disappointed in you, Skywarp. Tsk tsk tsk.' the feline mechanoid lapped at the energon some more. 'I wont tell anyone your dirty little secret, if you do something for me.'

"What makes you think I'll do any-" the purple and black mech stopped at the look on the Cassette's face. He vented before giving in, "What do you want?"

Ravage flicked his tail in amusement before giving his new minion instructions. And when he left, Skywarp sat there and stared at the still full energon cube that had cost him an entire month's and a half salary of credits.

* * *

Ravage rarely asked for anything from his creator, always getting things himself. Soundwave didn't know how his first creation had procured a rather expensive cat toy, but he didn't need to. It seemed that he had taught Ravage well. After all, information is power.

* * *

**(Thank you all for reading! I hope you enjoyed it as much as Ravage enjoyed it! I took a different approach to this chapter obviously, and I hope you guys enjoyed it. Please, review and tell me what you think! Good? Bad? Ideas? Next chapter will be the screecher himself, Starscream! Any ideas on how Ravage should ruin his day? I have a few in mind myself. ;) Brownie points and virtual cookies to anyone who can figure out what Skywarp is hiding! Again, thanks for reading! Your reviews and support help me to keep writing these little short stories!)**


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